HOMELESSNESS AND IDENTITY CRISIS IN POETRY OF TABISH KHAIR

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Tabish Khair is an English writer in English whose concerns are about India even though he has settled in Denmark. He belongs to state of India which is entirely different in language, culture and tradition as compared to the European nations. He is a poet whose poems deal with small town culture, and experiences. His style is simple, rich in metaphor and irony. Concept of identity crisis and anxiety is a new emerging trend in world literature and every writer makes it his particular genre. World literature is that which is accepted and read in the whole world which deals with diversified issues and identity dilemma is one of them. Khair’s poems reveal his nostalgic feelings for his homeland and dilemaic feeling for his identity. Being an Indian Muslim who has migrated to a European country his whole identity has changed but his feelings and memories for his own identity and home are still the same.
In his two collections of poems, he had deliberately shown his yearning for an ideal home which provide him a desirable feeling of homeliness, love, care, security, belonging. Through his poems he recalls his childhood days and also laments the present day life style of children who miss games of adventure and learning due to perforation and the like electronic gadgets. Today English poetry has overcome the subjugation to the influence of English, American or western poets and post colonial temperament.
The whole range of contemporary poetry projects the inner self of the poets. Their history, surroundings, culture, and inner self are revealed through a cluster of symbolic representation. They display their hones love for culture and heritage with comfortable strength on common themes, just as they explore “new horizon in contents”i, a...

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...et demonstrates a migrant sensibility with a peculiar vision for his home, culture and identity” 5. Through his poetry, he is determined to restore the relation which identifies him with those he lovers. He searches for identity which he found in none other than humanity.

Works Cited

1. Prem,P.C.K English Poetry in India: A Comprehensive Survey of Trends and Thought Patterns. New Delhi Author Press, 2011
2. Internet, WWW.Poem Hunter.Com, The World’s Poetry Archive.
3.Khair Tabish. Where Parallel Lines Meet, New Delhi: Penguin Books India 2000.Print Abbreviated as WPLM in subsequent quotations in the text.
4.Khair Tabish. Man Of Glass, New Delhi: Harper Collin and The India Today Group 2010. Print Abbreviated as MOG in subsequent quotations in the text.
5. Namrata Prerna and R.K.Singh, Tabish Khair: Quest for Home and Cultural Identity, Petri, vol.26, July 2013.

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